If you are a St Croix cat fisherman, one of the most difficult pieces of water to fish is the Lake St Croix expanse south of Stillwater and Hudson. If you are a Mississippi River cat man those long pool stretches with barges coming and going and houseboats lazily cruising by may puzzle you. Some of these stretches of water are more like a reservoir than a traditional river and you will find the large expanses of open water a significant challenge to find cats in. We know that there are nice cats there but finding them in those long featureless expanses of open water is frustrating.
Well, if it looks like a reservoir then let’s fish it like a reservoir. I read everything I could find on reservoir catfishing. One technique used with success down south is drifting for cats along the flats near the main river channel. This type of approach is used in many of the southern reservoirs for blue cats and channel cats. In the June – July issue of the 2003 In-Fisherman magazine is an article by Tom Lawrence and Steve Hoffman entitled “Drifting Up Channel Cats”. This article gave us some proven techniques on rigging and finding and marking fish. If these techniques worked on southern reservoirs they should work about the same on Lake St Croix and on the main channel of the Mississippi. I started talking to my friend, Bret Clark, who chases channel cats on Pool 8 of the Mississippi River. We started drifting for channels in the summer of 2005 and had some initial successes so we kept at it, comparing notes and refining our efforts. It has taken us a few years to figure out a pattern but I knew we had it dialed in when Bret Clark started consistently hammering the channel cats on Pool 8 this last year. This seems like an appropriate time with the upcoming cat season a few short months away to share these techniques to possibly help you put some beautiful cats in your boat.
This is a pretty simple approach to catching cats. You will not find a cheaper or simpler rig than our standard drifting rig: Tie a size 1/0 or so snap swivel on your main line. Tie a 1/0 to 5/0 circle hook on about an 18” to 24” leader and then tie about a size 1/0 barrel swivel to the end of the leader. Hook that barrel swivel on the snap swivel and you are ready to fish. We normally use fresh cut sucker for bait. That is it! Pretty simple. The weight of the cut bait and the two swivels is about all you will need to get your bait in the strike zone. Most people think they need to have a weight or some kind of sinker on their line to get it down to the bottom but before you add weight to your rig give this set up a fair chance – it will surprise you how effective it is.
Both Bret and I like to fillet our suckers into strips about 1 ½” to 2” wide and about 4” long or so. We use fresh cut sucker, it seems to leave a good scent trail. We cast that bait out behind the drifting boat feeding line until you will feel your bait ticking along the bottom. I place my rods in rod holders and watch my rod tips – you will see the rod tips jump as the bait ticks along the bottom but watch them because – WHAM! Those channel cats hit like freight trains. Bret will hold a rod and gets a feel for the bottom and what is going on with his bait. This way he can feel the light biters and will sometimes boat fish you never see with a rod sitting in a holder. Bret will attest to the strength of an aggressive channel cat – more than once he has had one try to rip the rod right out of his hand.
We try to fish the flats along the main channel targeting that first break into deeper water. That is where the shad schools seem to be congregate. Another location we have found is main channel humps with water in the 15 to 20 foot range and shad schools in the vicinity. Find the shad and you will find the catfish. When the shad are present and you can find them on your electronics, they will key you to catfish. Bret has also had luck fishing clam beds on the Mississippi which seem to attract channels.
We try to maintain a drift speed in the .5 mph to .75 mph range. The slower the better is usually a good rule. When I am drifting with the wind I will sometimes use a drift sock to control my speed and direction. Sometimes we will just use the electric trolling motor to run into the wind or use the electric if there is no wind at all. The trolling motor allows you to very accurately control your direction and speed – you are actually trolling more than drifting with this technique.
I use my GPS to mark each fish caught so that I can return to another drift close to that same location. I find the GPS invaluable because you can analyze each drift. I try not to spend any time on empty water already fished plus the GPS allows me to find and repeat the good drift lines.
You will notice we didn’t spend any time talking about rods, reels and equipment. You don’t need any special equipment. Bret loves using his walleye gear and enjoys the fight from the knuckle busting channels. I use my normal channel cat rods and they are probably overkill for these situations. Medium to medium heavy rods, lines in the 10# to 30# range, a dependable spinning or baitcasting reel with a good, smooth drag. Most fishermen don’t need to run out and buy catfishing rods to fish this technique. We would recommend giving it a try and based on your experiences add equipment to fit your personal taste after you have tried it.
If you want some more information on drifting and what was working and when just go back through the fishing reports for the last couple of years usually in the June / July / August time periods and you will see fishing reports from Bret and I. Here are the links to the drifting fishing reports:
Steve DeMars:
Drifting St Croix Channel Cats
St Croix Channel Cats on the Prowl – 16 Aug 06
Snagless Drift Rig – 3 July 07
Bret Clark:
